WGN Authority Report: September 19th

19 Sep , 2018

It was a relatively quiet week in esports with the most notable action being the third round of Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers and some Fighting Game competitions featuring Street Fighter and Tekken while the CS:GO FACEIT Major that kicked off last week finished its second of three stages. The slow pace won’t be the case for long, as the DOTA2 2018-2019 Pro League Qualifiers are taking place over the next few days.

Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers

The Thai qualifiers, the third of four qualifying rounds was completed last weekend. The group boasted multiple teams with top level pro players, making it one of the most unpredictable qualifying rounds of the event. China clearly established themselves as the strongest nation in the group, defeating everyone else on the way to a perfect 5-0 record, although Thailand, Denmark and Australia forced them to play the full five games.

The other team to advance from the group would be far less clear cut. Three teams finished the group stage with a 3-2 record: Australia, Denmark and Sweden. As a result of this three way tie, the second place finisher was determined from their game record. Here Australia held the advantage, accumulating 14 game wins over the course of the group. This pushed them into the final 8 accompanying China as the representatives of Group C.

This leaves only one qualifying round left this weekend in France. There the final 8 teams will battle it out for the final two spots at the Overwatch World Cup. Action begins on September 21st at 1 am EST on the official Overwatch Twitch Channel. For the final qualifiers full schedule you can check out the official World Cup site.

CS:GO FACEIT London

After talking about the first stage of the tournament last week, FACEIT’s New Legends Stage has also come to a close. The final 16 teams that were still remaining in the competition battled it out for a place in the final 8 through a traditional Swiss bracket. Last week we talked about both Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas who advanced through the first stage of the competition 3-0 but their fates in the second round couldn’t have been more different.

Team Liquid proved they are absolutely the real deal, advancing through the second portion of the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record. For Ninjas in Pyjamas however, their run ended here following a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat to MIBR in their final match where a win would have had them advancing into the final stage.

Joining Liquid at the top with an undefeated walk through the group was Complexity, who also had to play through the tournament’s opening stage – having advanced with a 3-1 record. BIG, HellRaisers and Astralis also advanced through the second stage. The only teams to make it through to the final stage that didn’t have to play in the opening stage are Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan and MIBR.

This sets the stage for the third and final round of the FACEIT competition, which will feature a single elimination bracket. With defeat meaning the end of a team’s tournament life, every one of the remaining series will be intense battles you won’t want to miss. Tune into all the action on the official FACEIT Twitch channel starting at 10:15am EST on September 20th.

SoCal Regionals

The Fighting Game community gathered in Ontario, California for a large competition featuring top players across many top titles.

SonicFox was ultimately the most player at the tournament, securing the victory in Injustice 2 and making it to the finals in Soul Caliber 6 and finishing 3rd in the DragonBall FighterZ event. This event helped solidify him as one of the absolute fiercest competitors in the entire fighting game community, and a potential victor of any tournament he enters.

The other biggest news coming out of the event was the victor of the Tekken 7 event. Jimmy J Tran was able to defeat a long list of sponsored players and top players such as Dimeback and JoeyFury on route to his tournament victory. Although this is the first time many people have heard of him it certainly won’t be the last as he assuredly has a bright future ahead of him.